Grilled (Holiday 10/14)

NO QUEREMOS SALIR!

This is what I wrote in the visitor books for Molino del Canto, and it simply means "We don't want to leave". The phrase, "Feeling at home" is overused many may times, but this has truly felt like we were, albeit briefly, part of the family.

Breakfast began with Valvarena's Pacharan recipe waiting for me on the breakfast table, and as I sat reading it and translating as much as I could, Javier appeared with Carlota, clutching the little Nessie cartoon, before being sent over to give me and Mel a kiss on each cheek.

Checkout is drawn out as we wait for the Aussies to finish up. We've got to know them well over these few days, and we're all heading on to the Basque port village of Getaria. As our turn to go comes, Valvarena produces a small bottle of her Pacharan for me, and I get into a conversation on wildlife art (Javier paints birds onto wooden blocks, and I share some of my pen and ink sketches).

More kisses on cheeks and we are, sadly, on our way.

Truth be told there's not much more to today. We plot out an inland route to intersect the motorway a little before Bilbao, and dip in amongst some more valleys and hills, passing through a few pretty villages on the way. Once on the main road we ponder diverting to Gernika, but decide to press on to the hotel.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we probably should have paused. Getaria is pretty enough, but small. This may sound odd having come from two places in the middle of nowhere, but this has a 'neither fish nor fowl' feel to it. Not big enough to spend more than an hour or two wandering without seeing pretty much everything; not small enough to feel like you're getting away from everything.

The old town streets (all four of them) are narrow and attractive, but covered quickly. THere are a few pintxos bars, but they seem to have alternate opening days (or the best we find is only open 10am to 5pm during the week) so that proper Basque pastime of a couple of nibbles in one, then hop into the next, is hampered somewhat. Mel especially is less than impressed. 

We head out for dinner, which given the number of restaurants, shouldn't be hard. The thing is pretty much every single one of them does the same thing. Grilled fish. That's not really a bad thing, but it's nice sometimes to at least have the choice of some variety.

Most of the restaurants have a large outside grill (as in the shot above), and huge chunks of fish are grilled butterflied. The prices are at the expensive end, which ties in with this being a bit of a tourist trap, but here we also encounter something odd. With tourism being the main source of income, quite a lot of places don't seem to like tourists.

It's all very odd. Not really sure what to make of Getaria, but after the wonderful stay with Javier, Valvarena and Carlota, it's a little alien to the Spain we've been getting to know so well.